The new Kia Soul EV, which will have its world premiere at the 2014 Chicago Auto Show starting later this week, has achieved UL Environment validation for bio-based organic carbon content for 10% of its interior materials. UL Environment is the environmental business unit of UL (Underwriters Laboratories), a global independent safety science company.

Various bio-based materials derived from biomass have been applied to the Soul EV, such as biodegradable plastic, bio-foam and bio-fabric.
The interior of Kia’s Soul EV includes various new materials such as 10% of bio-based plastic and anti-bacterial substances. Kia applied five newly developed materials, including cellulose-based plastic and thermoplastic elastomer fabric.

In order to receive the UL Environment claim validation, Kia went through meticulous document review of the applied internal materials and onsite inspections of Kia’s manufacturing sites. UL Environment granted the validation to the Kia Soul EV for containing bio-based plastic of 23,942g and bio-based organic carbon content of 10%.